


Invisible

by TwistedSkys



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Angst, jack's life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-24
Updated: 2012-11-24
Packaged: 2017-11-19 08:56:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/571492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwistedSkys/pseuds/TwistedSkys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He's been invisible for so long, sometimes it's hard to be seen. Mostly drabbles about Jack's life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Upon a Frozen Lake

The first time he saw her was about month after he had risen from the ice. He figured he had died somehow. He was a ghost. That was why no one could see him. Why he was always so cold, but never uncomfortable. It explained why ice reached from his fingers without him ever having to really think about it. He was a ghost, so he would haunt.

She came to his lake sometime in the mid-morning. She was small, just a little girl, no older than eight. She had brown hair that flutter just past her shoulders, wearing some kind of animal hide.

Jack was perched on his staff in the center of the lake, just over the spot he had come up. He always waited there as the sun rose over the trees, resting after spreading ice and cold in the town at night. 

But this girl came right up to the lake, stopping at the edge as if afraid that the ice would swallow her if she so much as touched it. She sat down at the edge, little hands digging into the frozen ground, pulling snow and dirt.

“Hey Jack.”

He flinched and moved, uncurling his legs and landing on the ice in one motion. “What did you say?” He asked, disbelief warring with such a painful hope that his heart hammered against his chest.

She did not repeat herself, even as fresh tears streaked down her face. He moved closer to her, afraid at first, but gaining confidence. “Hey, don’t cry,” he called.

“Papa and Mama miss you lots.” She said finally. “I miss you lots too. I wish we could play again. Even if only for a moment.” She sobbed for a long time, then.

Jack inched closer, finally crouching down in front of her. “Don’t cry,” he said again.

Her head shot up, looking right at him. Jack stumbled back, landing on his behind and slipping across the ice.

“What if it happens again?”

“What?”

“What if I step onto this lake and it cracks and tries to eat me like it did you?” She was still crying, but her eyes were angry. The face a child wronged by fate. Jack wanted to hold her and stop her crying, but he was afraid that if he touched her, that broken illusion that she could see him would simply shatter.

“Hey kid, it’s okay. I won’t let the lake eat you.” He smiled, but she did not hear him. The smile fluttered and faded on his own face.

She stood defiantly, marching onto the ice, right through him. He gasped, pain welling in his chest. He was tired of crying, so he screwed his eyes shut and refused to let the tears escape. After a moment he turned to look at her.

She had stopped where his staff was still wedged into the ice. He knew she could not see that either. She went to her knees, palms flat on the ice. Fat tears rolled from her eyes again and her sobs echoed in the silence.

He half crawled, half slid on the ice toward her. “Don’t cry,” he said a third time. It was more for his benefit then hers really. “I’ll protect you.” He sat behind her, even as she pounded on the ice.

“Jack!” she cried. “Jack Jack Jack!” Over and over again until they became sobs too. “Please come back. Nothing is fun without you. Nothing is happy.”

He was afraid to touch her but wanted nothing but to hold her. “I’m right here. I’ll never leave. I promise.”

She fell asleep on the ice, her arm cushioning her head. He was careful to grow his ice around her without touching her. There were wolves in these forests, and he did not want such an innocent child killed. He waited beside her until she awoke.

She crawled out of her circle, a smile on her face growing the more she looked at it.

“See,” he said after she escaped from it stood back to admire it. “There’s no reason to cry. I’m right here. And I’ll never go anywhere.”

“Thanks Jack.”

He knew she still could not see him, but her words warmed something he thought was frozen forever. He followed her all the way back to town, to make sure that she made it safely.

She visited him everyday, the same time. He watched her grow old as he stayed young. Even though the thought pained him, he still looked forward to her visits


	2. Yetis in the Empty Rooms

“Fugging Yetis…” There was so many of them. They walked around like fuzzy, waddling toys. It was hilarious. “Where’s the elves?” Jack had gotten into the habit of talking to himself. No one else seemed to see him, so it wasn’t like people could really judge. Besides, it eased the silence.

He gripped his staff tightly in his hands, bouncing on the balls of his feet. The yetis were working on clearing some (of his) snow out of the main runway for what Jack could only guess was North’s sleigh. He was not making it easy for them. Every time they had it cleared, Jack would dump more from the slanted roof above them, laughing a little in his glee as they made little grunts and growls in frustration.

Watching them was quickly becoming sad. The way they jostled and played with each other, even as they worked. Jack grew bored. 

He let the wind pick him off the roof and he swung gracefully toward a window. It frosted up as soon as he touched it, hands gripping the edge of the roof and the other still holding his staff. He touched the tip of the hook to the seam and watched as ice raced across the wood and between the crack. The lock clicked open and Jack swung through.

The air was warm as it hit him and he shivered in surprise. It was a long time since he had stepped inside someone’s home. He grinned. He was not just in someone’s home, he was in North’s workshop. His mind wondered briefly to the wonders he was going to be seeing. As soon as he got downstairs.

The room he had come in must have been a guest room or something. It was barren, except for a bed against the slanted walls. He kept the window open, in case he needed a quick escape or something, and padded silently across the room, his staff out in front of him.

There was a hall and some stairs at the end of it, and not a soul in sight. Jack grinned. It would not have made any difference. He doubted even old North could see him.

He was as light as a snowflake, letting the little gusts of wind in the halls move him faster than his feet could. It smelled like chocolate and cinnamon in here. His grin turned a little sad. The girl that would always visit him had used to smell like that. She was the wife of a baker. She had stopping coming to visit a while ago. He was afraid to go into town and find out what happened to her, in case she was gone.

He pushed it away. Now was not the time to be thinking about her. He had toys to steal.

He rounded a corner a little fast and landed headlong into something soft and harry. He umphed and the thing grunted as he bounced away, sprawling through the air gracelessly. His staff clattered to the ground somewhere around the thing’s legs. His powers suddenly dampened, he was dropped unceremoniously to the ground.

He lay stunned for a moment. Who the hell puts a giant teddy bear in the middle of the hallway? He discovered after a moment that it wasn’t a teddy bear. It was giant, and it was fuzzy, but it was also looking down at him with as much perplexity as if he’d just sprouted another head.

Jack got off the ground slowly, watching the yeti as if it were about to attack him. The brow on it’s face rose slowly, green eyes hilariously wide.

“Oh, hey, sorry. Didn’t see you there.” He spoke calmly, trying to keep a joyous panic from gripping him. So he did not care if it was a giant, fat, fuzz monster staring him down. It was staring him down. He grinned, dipping his head so that white bangs fell into his eyes. He knew it was a cute gesture. It always melted… someone he could never remember.

The yeti blinked, then bent to pick up his staff. It looked so flimsy in the giant’s paw, even though he was so gentle with it. He did not hand it back, but held on to it, gesturing for jack to follow, saying something is yetish.

“Uh, sorry, but I don’t speak grunt.” He did not care. The yeti looked back at him with an irritated expression and Jack grinned. The very fact that the yeti was responding was something else entirely. His heart leapt with joy and his eyes prickled with relief. He was not alone.

He followed the yeti for a while, keeping up a narrative all the way until they reached a giant pair of red double doors. The yeti escorted him outside, handed back the staff, then closed the door as he went back inside.

Jack had been mid-sentence. Telling the yeti about how he wanted to meet North. The door slammed shut on his nose. Jack stood outside for a long time as a blizzard blew up around him. That yeti could see him.

He smiled at himself, sitting down against the door. The snow raging around him blocked out the moon. Not that he wanted to see him anyway. The Man in the Moon had made him, but forgot to tell him why. It did not matter that the yetis saw him. They did not care.

Nobody cared for little Jack Frost, bringer of cold and stagnant winter. Not even a creature that could not live without the things he brought.


	3. In Shadows We Drown Pt.1

Jack was panicking. It wasn’t the little bit of panic that got your heart racing either. It was the kind of panic you get when you’ve realized that everything just very quickly turned to shit and no matter how hard you scramble to put things right, you can’t.

His name was Kozmotis Pitchiner. He was the Nightmare King. And he loomed over the winter spirit like a shadow. Fear gripped his heart but he refused to back down. He refused to look away from bright amber eyes.

It did not matter that his staff was lost somewhere in the woods around them, or that Pitch was grinning at him because he knew he had won. It did not matter. Because he was not afraid. The children that coward in the hollow behind him could not see him, but they could see Pitch. Pitch could see him, and the King of Darkness looked down at him as if he were a bug that had crawled across his foot.

“What’s this?” Pitch crooned softly. “A little sprite thinks he can stand up to me?”

“Yes.” Jack’s voice came out firmer than he felt and he thanked the Man in the Moon for that little bit of control. “I will not let you harm them.” He spread his arms out to block as much of the children as he could from Pitch’s sight.

Pitch laughed. It hurt Jack’s ears and made his stomach turn. The children behind him cried and whimpered, calling out for help. Something nasty twisted Pitch’s features. Jack thought perhaps it could have been a smirk if not for the snarl that curled his lips over grey razor teeth. “They cry out for help but they don’t even realize that it stands in front of them. They don’t believe in you, little sprite. How very sad. You must be so very lonely. No one to say hello, or good bye. No one to hug you. Not that anyone would want to hug you. You’d probably freeze them the moment they touched you.”

Jack’s face was stone. He refused to give in, refused to let his words gnaw away at the already bloody wounds on his spirit. “Go away, Pitch.”

The Nightmare King laughed again, sending chills through Jack. What he wouldn’t give to have his staff. “Even you know my name. But I don’t even know yours.”

“Frost. My name is Jack Frost.”

“Jack Frost,” Pitch said softly, smiling again. He reached a finger out to touch his forehead. Jack refused to flinch away, even though everything in him was screaming to get away. He glared at Pitch instead.

“Go away,” he said again.

Pitch stopped smiling, as if he suddenly had grown bored of playing this game. Jack knew that was what he was without his staff. Just a game, a toy to be broken. Pitch no longer found him interesting.

He gathered the shadows around him, like a living mass. The children screamed and Jack found he was screaming too. He was drowning, freezing. It was so cold, colder than anything he had ever felt. It sucked the air from him and every time he tried to breeze, it was like ice had crawled down his throat. He thrashed against the darkness, against the water that threatened to swallow him alive. At least Pippa is alive…

No. No! He was not going to drown in ice. Ice was his, it could not kill him. It preserved him. And it was what was going to save those children. He lashed out, knowing that he was useless without his staff. But he was not going to just give up.

Light sparked in the darkness, a chill ran through him. He centered himself, lashed out again. A spider web of ice spread out, spinning and twisting in painful circles. Again, and cracks began to show. Again, and air filled his lungs. He gulped it down as if starved.

There was pain. Pain everywhere. It twisted itself inside his body, curling and carving and cutting until he was raw. The air was gone, he was drowning again. But he realized that he had done what he could. He caught a glimpse, though the crack he had made in the darkness. The children were safe, warriors that they believed in had come to save them. He had done his job. He had protected them the best he could. He let the ice water swallow his head as he surrendered to darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will have two parts to it. Also, Jack's sister's name is Pippa, according to the wiki. When he thinks of her, he's having a remnant memory that he's not really aware of.

**Author's Note:**

> Expect a few more.


End file.
